Features:

• 4 Color Schemes
• Post Formats
• Archives Template
• Responsive Design
• Custom Widgets
• Shortcode Manager
• Buit-in Gravatar Support
• Built-in Threaded Comments Support

Screenshots:

Unlike other free WordPress themes with Tumblr-Like features, the BonPress theme is packed with premium features that are found in most of WPZOOM premium themes. Aside from the basic and premium features listed above, BonPress uses the “responsive design” technique which enables the blog to automatically adapt the theme layout to the screen resolution of the device, improving the readability of the blog. BonPress has its own mobile theme/layout for tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices. Best of all, WPZOOM has made this theme available for FREE.

Preview or Download the BonPress Tumblr-Like WordPress Theme from WPZOOM.

NOTE: This theme was scanned using the Theme Authenticity Checker and doesn’t contain any hidden or encrypted code.

Here’s a short introduction/insight from the theme authors:

Releasing a theme on Smashing Magazine is always a challenge for us at DesignDisease. A challenge we look forward to. ‘Splendio’ is a theme where we try to solve the empty space that exists around most themes with a joyful rhythm of lines and squares, complimented with a light color palette. The specialized header images complete the package, as it can be used both in a static or randomized manner.

Designed by Vlad and Elena Scanteie and developed exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers, the Splendio theme is a 3-column, widget-ready theme that’s based on the Twenty Ten WordPress theme.

Basic Features:

• 3 columns (homepage)
• 2 columns (post/page)
• Widget-ready (6 widgetized areas)
• Built-in gravatar support
• Built-in threaded comments support
• Homepage post/image slider (Featured Article)
• RSS/Social bookmarking buttons
• Flickr gallery

Screenshots:
Homepage

Blog Post

Page

My Take:
Splendio is an awesome freemium WordPress theme. Aside from the basic features – widget-ready, threaded comments support, gravatar support, etc. it has a premium quality design and other elements that you don’t normally see/get in a free WordPress theme. I like the post and image slider on the homepage (Featured Article), RSS/social bookmarking buttons on the left side of the header and the Flickr gallery. Another thing I love about the Splendio theme is the style/layout and custom icons/buttons on the comment form.

Another cool thing about this free WordPress theme is that the PSD sources are available for FREE. This means if you have some Adobe Photoshop skills, you can completely change or customize the look and feel of the Splendio theme.

Although the theme can run without them, a few WordPress plugins are required to implement 100% functionality of the Splendio theme – Flickr RSS, WP Featured Content Slider and WP PageNavi which by the way are all included in a separate download package.

Because Splendio is based on the the Twenty Ten WordPress theme, users can choose to display random header images. The theme package includes several custom images but if you want to use your own custom header, you can upload it via the Appearance > Header section.

Preview the Splendio WordPress Theme
Download the Splendio WordPress Theme (Theme + Plugins)
Download the Splendio WordPress Theme (Theme + Plugins + PSD Sources)

NOTE: This theme requires WordPress 3.0+

How do you like the Splendio WordPress theme? What specific feature/s do you like most? What other features/options would like to be added to this theme? Please share your thoughts.

From WPZOOM:

At a closer look you’ll realize that, yet simple, this theme is great for a Portfolio showcasing works of a photographer or designer. Even if this theme is a “free” one, we didn’t hesitate to integrate a great Featured Posts Slider on the homepage of the theme, great for highlighting your greatest works.

Besides the above described “visual” features this theme has, it is also enhanced with our WPZOOM Options Panel, which allows you very quickly and easy to configure any option of this theme.

Features:

• Featured Slider
• Custom Widgets: Flickr Gallery, Social Profiles, Featured Posts
• Widgetized Sidebar & Footer
• Custom Post & Page Templates
• Gravatar support
• Threaded comments support

Screenshots:

Homepage

Regular Layout

Custom Layout (Full width)

Options Page

Designed by Oleg Dubinovich, Photoria is an awesome portfolio style WordPress theme that’s ideal for designers and photographers who want to showcase their works online. Not only does it look good but it also has very nice features. I’m sure many WordPress users would be able to use this theme for one of their projects, client’s website or their own portfolio.

Kudos to the designer Oleg Dubinovich, Pavel Ciorici and the rest of the folks of WPZOOM for releasing this nice WordPress theme for free to the community.

Preview or Download the Photoria WordPress Theme.

NOTE: This theme was scanned using the Theme Authenticity Checker and doesn’t contain any hidden or encrypted code.

Now that WordPress.com users are starting to get more features that previously were only available to WordPress.org blogs like premium themes, it’s now WordPress.org blogs turn to get features that were previously only available to WordPress.com users.

How? This is all made possible by Jetpack, a plugin released by Automattic last week that brings WordPress.com features and functionality to WordPress.org or self-hosted WordPress users.

Here’s an excerpt of Matt Mullenweg’s post on the Jetpack blog:

Today we’re launching the first version of what’s been a dream of mine for several years now, really since my State of the Word presentation in 2009: a way to provide feature parity between WordPress.com and WordPress.org for everybody.

Our users have been banging down the door for this. Every time we launch something new on WP.com the first question is always asking how people can get it for their self-hosted blog. Now you can have your cake and eat it too — host your own blog, completely under your control and with the freedom of the GPL, and still get all the cloud goodies of our hosted service. It’s the best of both worlds, the decentralized and the centralized, the control and the convenience, the peanut butter and the chocolate.

For the initial launch, Jetpack will include eight of the most-requested features –

• Gravatar Hovercards: Find out who’s commenting on your posts with enhanced information for Gravatars (includes full name, bio, other web profiles).
• WordPress.com Stats: Keep on top of your traffic with powerful and simple to understand statistics for your site.
• Twitter Widget: Keep your readers more up to date by syncing your tweets to your site via a simple widget.
• Shortcodes: Quickly add movies, images, and more to your posts and pages with a single line of code.
• Shortlinks: Automatically creates an easy to copy/paste mini-url for any post on your site.
• LaTeX: Use the famous markup language to quickly create beautiful mathematical expressions and equations.
• Sharedaddy: Your readers can easily share your posts via email or their favorite social networks.
• After the Deadline: Your writing will improve thanks to this artificial intelligence based spell, style, and grammar checker.

Personally, I haven’t tried Jetpack here on JaypeeOnline but am planning to do so one of these days. Anyways, kudos to Matt Mullenweg and the rest of the WordPress team for creating and releasing Jetpack so self-hosted WordPress users like me can use WordPress.com features on our blogs.

Download Jetpack and supercharge your self hosted WordPress site with the awesome cloud power of WordPress.com.

Anyone here who’s installed Jetpack into their self-hosted WordPress blog? Which initial feature do you like the most? What other feature/s would you like to see added to Jetpack? Please share your thoughts.

“I almost missed it, but the 25th was exactly one year after the fateful comment from Mike that started the chain of events that brought WordPress into being. Look how far things have come from that comment to the world-class blogging software we have now. The longest journey begins with a single step.” -Matt Mullenweg

To honor the anniversary of WordPress, Ben Welch-Bolen of Site5 Hosting created a special free WordPress theme called the WordPress Anniversary theme.

The WordPress Anniversary Theme is a classic type of theme with several layout options. It comes with a custom “Thank you WordPress” just to show our appreciation to the crew that made such a big difference on the Web.

Features:

• Widget ready (footer and sidebar)
• Easy to setup, Theme Options Page
• WordPress Post Thumbnail Enabled
• WordPress 3.0+ Menu Management Support
• Latest Tweets Built-in Widget
• Built-in Pagination
• Grid and standard posts listing with or without thumbnails
• JQuery PrettyPhoto Lightbox
• JQuery Forms
• Ajax based contact form
• Live form email validation

Screenshots:
Right Sidebar Standard View

Right Sidebar Grid View

Right Sidebar Grid with Thumbnails

Left Sidebar Grid with Thumbnails

As a WordPress user for about 7 years now, I’d like to take this moment to thank Matt Mullenweg for coming up with the idea and creating WordPress. This piece of blogging software has not only allowed me to easily create and manage a blog, express and share my thoughts online but also enable me to earn money and make a living out of it. I’d also like to thank all the WordPress developers and contributors who work hard to develop new versions of the software, fix and patch bugs and the rest of the WordPress community who contribute their time and effort into making WordPress the best blogging software/CMS around.

Kudos to Ben Welch-Bolen for creating and sharing this special WordPress theme to the WordPress community!

The WordPress Anniversary Theme is released under GPL and can be used for FREE without any restrictions. To learn more and access the documentation and support forum for this theme, visit the WordPress Anniversary Theme website.

Preview or Download the WordPress Anniversary Theme.

[via Theme Lab]